Tonight's Powerball drawing has a jackpot of $700 million - the second-highest jackpot in the game's history.
Today in just New York state, Powerball sales have topped more than $1 million-an-hour - and are expected to increase even more this evening until the close of sales at 10 p.m.
"$700 million is certainly life-changing money, and New Yorkers are buying tickets to be a part of the excitement," said Gweneth Dean, director of the division of the lottery. "Powerball fever has once again arrived in New York state, and we are excited for all our players."
This Powerball jackpot started rolling June 14, starting at $40 million. Jackpots have rolled 20 times leading up to the $700 million jackpot, the second-largest jackpot in Powerball game history.
Leading up to this drawing, New York Powerball sales have been $91.18 million, or 7.88 percent of the $1.16 billion in sales across all participating Powerball states. Aid to education from New York's Powerball ticket sales during the same time period totaled more than $31.91 million.
There have been three second-prize Powerball-winning tickets worth $1 million each sold in New York since this roll-up began.
Since New York joined Powerball in 2010, the state has sold six jackpot-winning tickets for the game:
- Dec. 25, 2010 - $48.8 million - Jeffrey & Christine Pintuff of Gansevoort
- Jan. 22, 2011 - $122.1 million - Stephen Kirwan of Purling
- June 1, 2011 - $201.9 million - 1937 Flatbush Avenue Dodgers Group of Jericho
- Feb. 25, 2012 - $70 million - Case Park, LLC of Hartsdale
- Nov. 16, 2013 - $130.3 million - Maksim Nikolayev of Brooklyn
- March 14, 2015 - $136.0 million - Perosi of Manhattan
Since 2010, the New York Lottery has awarded $197.6 million to 276 second-prize winners.
The record Powerball jackpot amount currently stands at $1.586 billion, split in January 2016 by three players in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Powerball costs $2 per game to play. The "Power Play" multiplier costs an additional $1 per game to play. To play Powerball, players choose five numbers from a field of 1 to 69, plus one Powerball number from a separate field of 1 to 26.
Any player who matches all five numbers and the Powerball number in tonight's drawing will have to decide between the annuity option of an estimated $700 million (30 payments over 29 years) or a lump-sum payment of an estimated $443.3 million. If there is more than one grand prize-winning ticket, the jackpot will be split by the winning ticketholders.
If no one matches all five numbers plus the Powerball in tonight's drawing, the jackpot will roll once again. The jackpot amount will depend on ticket sales across all 47 jurisdictions in total.
More information about Powerball, and the Multi-State Lottery Association can be found
HERE.
